Aetna to drop copays on heart attack drugs

Aetna plans to eliminate copays on drugs that help prevent heart attacks after a study showed patients took their medicines and were healthier when there were no out-of-pocket costs for their treatments, reports FiercePracticeManagement. "While the savings wasn't considered statistically significant, it showed it didn't cost the insurer more to eliminate the co-pays," said Dr. Niteesh Choudhry, lead study author and researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Accoding to Dr. Lonny Reisman, Aetna's chief medical officer and an author of the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the insurer is considering doing do so for other chronic conditions such as diabetes and chronic lung disease. Article